- After winning the prestigious 41st annual Southern Intercollegiate Championships in Athens, Ga., last Monday, ETSU men's tennis senior Enrique Olivares (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) continued his outstanding play this fall, as he advanced at the UVA Ranked Plus One Invitational, hosted by the University of Virginia.

In a tournament which features 18 nationally ranked players and three doubles ranked teams, the 31st ranked Olivares was one of the few bright spots for the Bucs, Saturday.

"Enrique (Olivares) continues to led this team this fall," said head coach Yaser Zaatini. "This is the second straight ranked tournament that our team has played in and just like last weekend Enrique is leading the way. The thing that amazes me about him, is how hard he's worked to get to this level. Early on in his career Enrique had his ups and downs, but to watch his focus and talent evolve into the player he is today is something I'm very proud to be apart of as a coach."

In his first match of the day Olivares dropped 79th ranked Ivan Salec of Radford in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (5). Then the reigning A-Sun Player of the Year defeated 75th ranked Houston Barrick of host Virginia, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5), becoming the only ETSU player to advance to Sunday's two-round final matches.

Other notable ETSU players that participated in the ranked tournament included newcomer Charles Bottoni (Bois Guillaume, France)and senior Alex Ahlgren (Tyreso, Sweden), who dropped both matches and were eliminated from further play.

"It was disappointing to see how some of our players played during their matches this weekend," said Zaatini. "Sure there are some tough teams and individuals in this tournament, but you can't be successful against top-level competition when players aren't playing consistently every point. In college tennis you can't have only one or two players winning in tournaments. As much as its nice seeing Enrique winning individual matches, tennis is a team sport and our players have a lot of talent and but we have work on our physical conditioning and our focus every tournament to be successful. "